Vmware Esx Server - Converter Standalone

VMware Standalone Converter: a tool to upload and convert virtual machines from a client to an Esx server.

[cos'è una roadmap]

Installation and configuration (server side)

This the official documentation for VMware Converter.

VMware Standalone Converter is a client/server tool available for linux and windows capable to upload and convert your old VMware virtual machines or even physical machines into an Esx server. It can be downloaded from here (it requires a free vmware account) and for linux is a tgz file.

At the time of writing this is the latest version: Version 4.0.1 | 161434 - 05/21/09: download it on a workstation or on a server machine and follow this procedure (captured with "script"):

[Note: I discovered that here there is an opensource version of the VMware Converter Standalone but I never tried it.]

x3400:~# tar zxf VMware-converter-4.0.1-161434.tar.gz 
x3400:~# ls
99-bubble.rules     DISK-SERIAL-NUMBERS  env-001-slot6  env-002-slot6  serial-hamming  ttyrec.log
brick               env-001-slot4        env-002-slot4  minicom.log    serial-perlis   VMware-converter-4.0.1-161434.tar.gz
create-dn-rules.sh  env-001-slot5        env-002-slot5  pic.png        serial-wilkes   vmware-converter-distrib
x3400:~# cd vmware-converter-distrib/
x3400:~/vmware-converter-distrib# ls
bin  conf  doc  etc  FILES  installer  lib  README  sbin  system_etc  vmware-install.pl
x3400:~/vmware-converter-distrib# ./vmware-install.pl 
Creating a new VMware vCenter Converter Standalone installer database using the
tar4 format.

Installing VMware vCenter Converter Standalone.

You must read VMware's patent list
Press enter to display it. 

Copyright @ 1998-2009 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. VMware software
products are protected by one or more U.S. Patent Numbers 6,075,938,
6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886,
6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,944,699, 6,961,806, 6,961,941, 7,069,413,
7,082,598, 7,089,377, 7,111,086, 7,111,145, 7,117,481, 7,149,843, 7,155,558,
7,222,221, 7,260,815, 7,260,820, 7,269,683, 7,275,136, 7,277,998, 7,277,999,
7,278,030, 7,281,102, 7,290,253, 7,356,679, 7,409,487, 7,412,492, 7,412,702,
7,424,710, 7,428,636, 7,433,951, 7,434,002, 7,447,854, 7,475,002, 7,478,173,
7,478,180, 7,478,218, 7,478,388, 7,484,208, 7,487,313, 7,487,314, 7,490,216,
7,500,048; patents pending.


You must read and accept the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone End User 
License Agreement to continue.
Press enter to display it. q

VMWARE MASTER END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

NOTICE:  BY DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING, COPYING 
OR OTHERWISE USING THE SOFTWARE, YOU AGREE TO BE 
BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS VMWARE MASTER END 
USER LICENSE AGREEMENT ("EULA").  IF YOU DO NOT 
AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS EULA, YOU MAY NOT 
DOWNLOAD, INSTALL, COPY OR USE THE SOFTWARE, 
AND YOU MAY RETURN THE UNUSED SOFTWARE TO THE 
VENDOR FROM WHICH YOU ACQUIRED IT WITHIN THIRTY 
(30) DAYS AND REQUEST A REFUND OF THE LICENSE FEE, 
IF ANY, ALREADY PAID UPON SHOWING PROOF OF 
PAYMENT.  "YOU" MEANS THE NATURAL PERSON OR THE 
ENTITY THAT IS AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THIS EULA, 
THEIR EMPLOYEES AND THIRD PARTY CONTRACTORS 
THAT PROVIDE SERVICES TO YOU.  YOU SHALL BE LIABLE 
FOR ANY FAILURE BY SUCH EMPLOYEES AND THIRD 
PARTY CONTRACTORS TO COMPLY WITH THE TERMS OF 
THIS AGREEMENT.

1.	DEFINITIONS

1.1	"Designated Administrative Access" means that access to the 
standard user interfaces of a given instance of the Software 
(designated in this section) that you may grant to a designated 
third party (a) for which you have provided advance written 
notice to VMware that you are providing outsourced services 
and (b) for whose dedicated benefit you have licensed such 
instance of the Software.  Designated Administrative Access is 
applicable only where you are 1) an IT outsourcing company 
that is providing outsourced IT services to a client company 
and 2) applicable only to the following Software: ESX, 
VMware Server and vCenter Server.

1.2	"GPL Software" means GPL software licensed to you under 
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free 

Do you accept? (yes/no) yes

Thank you.

Do you want to install Converter Standalone Client? [yes] 

Do you want to install Converter Standalone Server? [yes] 

In which directory do you want to install the executable files? 
[/usr/bin] 

In which directory do you want to install the VMware vCenter Converter 
Standalone library files? 
[/usr/lib/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone] 

The path "/usr/lib/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone" does not exist 
currently. This program is going to create it, including needed parent 
directories. Is this what you want? [yes] 

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)? 
[/etc] 

What is the directory that contains the init scripts? 
[/etc/init.d] 

Do you want to enable remote access in Converter Standalone Server? [no] yes

What port do you want the HTTP proxy to use? [80] 81

What port do you want the HTTPS proxy to use? [443] 444

In which directory do you want to install the theme icons? 
[/usr/share/icons] 

What directory contains your desktop menu entry files? These files have a 
.desktop file extension. [/usr/share/applications] 

Please wait while copying VMware vCenter Converter Standalone files...

Generating SSL Server Certificate

Starting VMware Converter:
   Converter Standalone Server                                         done

The installation of VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.1 build-161434 for 
Linux completed successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your 
system at any time by invoking the following command: 
"/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-converter.pl".

You can run VMware vCenter Converter Standalone by launching 
/usr/bin/vmware-converter-client now ...

Enjoy,

--the VMware team

x3400:~/vmware-converter-distrib# /etc/init.d/vmware-converter restart
Stopping VMware Converter:
   Converter Standalone Server                                         done
Starting VMware Converter:
   Converter Standalone Server                                         done

I picked ports 81 and 444 to avoid troubles with apache. Pointing your browser to the <http://server_ip:81> you should see this simple interface from which you can just download the VMware Standalone Converter client for windows and linux.

If you run an nmap over your server you'll see port 80 and 443 (81 and 444 in my case)

Start an X session and launch vmware-converter-client from a terminal. This windows will pop up:

choose "Connect to a local server" to gain access to the main application from which several actions can be performed starting from the upload to the Esx server of already existing virtual machines.

Installation and configuration (client side)

This step is optional and really a nightmare. At this point it should be possible to go on another client machine and install just the client side of the application and try to connect it to the server. Well it doesn't work at all. I tried with linux and windows client even with the original ports (80, 443), even locally using the tcp connection on 127.0.0.1 and with different users (root included). I tried to disable the ssl but there is noway to make it working.

All the time the client pops up this error message: "Server logon failed due to a bad username or password"

On the server side, where the problem seems to be, this is the common error written into the log file:

[2009-11-09 21:09:09.707 EFCDAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] User agent is 'VMware-client/4.0.0'
[2009-11-09 21:09:09.707 EFCDAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Client: NeedsContentLength: false UnderstandsChunking: true CanKeepAlive: true (PresetContentLength -1)
[#3] [2009-11-09 21:09:09.707 EFCDAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Complete (processed 1491 bytes)
[2009-11-09 21:09:09.751 EECDAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] User agent is 'VMware-client/4.0.0'
[2009-11-09 21:09:09.751 EECDAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Client: NeedsContentLength: false UnderstandsChunking: true CanKeepAlive: true (PresetContentLength -1)
[#3] [2009-11-09 21:09:09.751 F04DAB90 error 'App'] [user,776] Failed to authenticate user root
[#3] [2009-11-09 21:09:09.767 F04DAB90 verbose 'App'] [eventManager,2037] [EventManager] Event[97]
[2009-11-09 21:09:09.767 F04DAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] User agent is 'VMware-client/4.0.0'
[2009-11-09 21:09:09.767 F04DAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Client: NeedsContentLength: false UnderstandsChunking: true CanKeepAlive: true (PresetContentLength -1)
[2009-11-09 21:09:09.767 F04DAB90 verbose 'Ufa.HTTPService'] HTTP Response: Complete (processed 573 bytes)
[2009-11-09 21:09:59.705 F3BC46B0 warning 'App'] Read timeout after approximately 50000ms. Closing stream UNIX(/var/lib/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone/vmware-converter-server-soap)

I opened a question on the VMware community ...